Well it took a little longer than expected but the Yeti SB95 is finally built. After ordering the stated front derailleur in the SB95 owner's manual it turned out to be wrong (the manual) and we had to wait for a new front mech to arrive. Anyway it's done now and the bike has had a few rides. Nothing big enough to constitute giving any initial feedback other than the thing climbs and pedals exceptionally well (I rode it home from our sea level office the other day). Off road it's only been out for a small ride on the weekend, but I'll be getting out on it a lot more over the coming weeks, so there will be some first thoughts coming at you pretty soon. Build-wise most of it has come off the Niner WFO9 like the Easton Carbon Haven wheels, Fox 140mm 34s, Avid Code brakes, RockShox Reverb and the X9 rear mech. SRAM came to the party and provided the bike with a little bling by way of the chrome XO 2x10 crankset.

The first thing we did when building the SB95 was order the optional 12mm chip set (also available for the SB66) which converts the rear from a QR to a Shimano 12mm axle.

After riding Easton's new Havoc 35 bar on the Santa Cruz Tallboy for the last few months we decided to set up the SB95 with the same cockpit so have gone for more Easton goodness. They're still sitting at 800mm but will be shrinking to 770mm over the next few days (the Tallboy is running 760mm).

On a bike of this price it's a given that it will have nice attention to detail like clean cable routing.

Yeti have gone for post mounts out the back, although we're getting a little rubbing on the caliper body from the Avid Rotor.

And that's what I hope to look like on Friday when I'm taking this thing for a spin around Whakarewarewa, drifting down Billy-T!

Thanks to Campbell at Bicycle for helping with the build and if you like what you see you can head over to yetinz.co.nz and order your own one.